Tracce veneziane in un manoscritto appartenuto a Maria Casimira Sobieska. Tra Cabala e magia naturale
Between Kabbalah and Natural Magic: Venetian Traces in a Manuscript that Belonged to Maria Casimira Sobieska

Summary/Abstract: The article presents some texts from manuscript 2284 stored at the Jagiellonian University Library in Krakow, titled "Księga Kabał Królowej Sobieskiej" (The Kabbalah Book of Queen Sobieska). It is a collection of unpublished texts about magic, Kabbalah, and astrology, collected by Maria Casimira Sobieska herself during her long sojourn in Italy (1699–1714). Some of the manuscript’s texts were written in Italian, most likely in Venice at the end of the 17 th century, and signed by a certain Andrea Valetta, a citizen of the Most Serene Republic. Some of these texts concern natural magic, and others, Kabbalah: "Acqua simpatica per scivere [sic] da lontano, Per fare l’acqua ardente, A’ far la scrittura simpatica, and Altra Acqua simpatica" (104r–105v); "Modo di scrivere in Zifra senza dar sospetto di Zifra and Tabella della prima scienza numerica" (100r); "Seconda scienza numerica" (100v–101v); "Trattato Per estrarre il nome del Genio" (106r–113r); "Regole di Cabala di Salomone Imparatale divinam[ente] da Dio "(216r–222v). The work shows how, in the texts on natural magic, Valetta follows Giovanni Battista Della Porta’s theory and approach to natural magic. In the texts on Kabbalah, although he considers Kabbalah from a Christian point of view, like Pico della Mirandola, he ignores mystical and spiritual aspects—which, in Pico, are most important—focusing on practical and prophetic aspects.

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